storm's brewing...

i'm getting excited... we've got a huge storm rolling in later this afternoon/tonight which is supposed to kick up some seriously large swell for tomorrow. my mom is graciously allowing me to borrow her van tomorrow afternoon, so i should be able to get some surfing in for the first time in a looong time. i'm almost antsy with anticipation. let me offer this piece of advice: don't ever learn to surf. not because it isn't fun, or thrilling, or exhilarating, or even a spiritual experience, because it is all of those and more... but it's also incredibly addictive. i'm not even very good at surfing, but it's still managed to sink it's enticing lures into my dreams and desires. it's like that verse in song of solomon that recommends to "not arouse or awaken love until it so desires." don't ever start surfing unless you can keep doing it with something bordering on regularity. that's my word of wisdom for the day

my roommate and i went kayaking almost every day after work this week. the weather was great, and we were trying to take advantage of the last week before the time change (sidenote: is daylight savings time beginning or ending? and why do we still observe this arcane practice of screwing with our sleep schedules twice a year? i think the whole thing is rediculous). yesterday we kayaked down the spurwink river and out beyond the mouth to a small little island which lay a little ways out in the ocean. it was gorgeous... we saw several great blue herons, countless ducks and other assorted waterfowl, and one fairly gregarious harbor seal. but the best sight of all was the sunset... oh sweet heavens. watching the sun set over the land from the ocean was a perfect capstone to a great day and a superb week. adding to the specialness of the event was the knowledge that it would probably be our last time out kayaking this year... the water is getting a little cold to be safely paddling without wetsuits, and the shortening of the afternoon daylight hours available means that our almost ritualistic post-work paddles won't be possible anymore. ah well... it's been a great run

every time i'm in the portland public library (which i am right now), there's a slightly eccentric person who sits at the same table and has this enormous stamp collection that he appears to be sorting through. i'm not sure what he does with his stamps exactly... he appears to just be arranging and rearranging them into giant squares of stamps. intriguing.

i FINALLY got my "official" uniforms for work earlier this week. i was pretty stoked... right up until i put the pants on. they fit o.k., but they feel like they were made from inexpensive burlap. not even nice burlap, but really crappy, junky, scruffy burlap. the kind that chafes your thighs when you walk, which is exactly what the pants did to me. the first day wasn't too bad, but the next day it started to get downright painful to walk. so i said to myself, "forget this, i'm not wearing the worst pair of pants in the history of the world even if someone else does wash them for me," and went home and changed into my own pants. much better. i plan on never wearing the pants from hades ever again if it can be helped

i was actually getting resentful about the pants. i kept thinking to myself, "after all the hard work i do and have done, this is the reward i get? the worst pants ever? gee, thanks for nothing." then i realized the trap i was falling into... should i necessarily expect free pants? no, i suppose not. but because they were provided, i automatically assumed that i then had a right to free pants. and from that position, i leaped to the assumption that i was due not only free pants, but free pants that were comfortable to wear. if all i had been told was that i would be getting some shirts, a sweater, a few t-shirts and a jacket, would i have been happy? no... i would have been thrilled to death. so perhaps my attitude shouldn't be one of discontent because the pants are horrible, but one of thankfulness that i even got pants at all, not to mention some other assorted items of clothing


it's all about perspective. and, admittedly, i usually look at things the wrong way. but i'm trying to change that.



"never look a gift horse in the mouth?" too arcane and outdated. thus i propose the following in it's place: "don't expect free pants to fit."

sweet victory

i'm beginning to feel slightly spoiled... two world series titles? in four years? not to mention three (going on four) super bowl victories for the patriots in this century. it's a good time to be a new england sports fan

i stayed up until the final pitch last night; i didn't get to see their clinching victory in 2004, and i wasn't about to miss the chance to see them wrap it up this year. you never know, it might be another 86 years until their next one, and i'd hate to think i missed the chance to see them clinch the title

now perhaps life can return to normal... my evening activities won't be dictated by whether the red sox are playing or not, and i can start paying off some of the sleep debt i've accumulated. it's all worth it, though... isn't it? or is it? after all, it's just a game; is a game worth losing sleep for? is it worth wearing your lucky red socks for several games without washing them? should i start listening to a band other than the dropkick murphys? or, more importantly, have i been a good steward of my time?



ah, screw it. i'll leave the deep questions for sometime else. right now i'm euphoric, exhausted, and slightly hungry. perhaps a glass of egg nog and a nap are in order....



mmhmm, yes they are


in conclusion, a token manny ramirez quote from before game four: "You can't eat your cake before it's your birthday." um... yes. i concur.

it's been a busy month.

musical mysticism

i’ve always been fascinated by horoscopes. i don’t mean that they fascinate me in the sense that i find myself believing in them, trusting them, or putting much stock in their claims whatsoever. what fascinates me is that they invariably use some sort of ranking system (in addition to their brief daily life forecast) to predict how good a day you will have. the local paper uses stars, of all things (how appropriate). but in all the years that i’ve been checking the paper, i’ve never seen someone’s day get assigned as few as two stars. definitely never just one. how can that be? surely there’s a chance that every now and then (sometimes more often than not), we’re going to have an absolute crap day. they can’t predict that? maybe it’s just me... but i find that fairly amusing. it’d be like predicting sunny skies with a light ocean breeze and temperatures in the 80’s... every single day of the year

anyways, i decided to borrow and slightly manipulate a different formula for both predicting the future, interpreting the past and understanding the present. i call it...

“the all-wise ipod”

simply devise a list of questions for your favorite media player, and then set it to play on random. carefully record the song titles as they come up, in order, and write them below the corresponding questions. you can use pre-existing questions, make up your own, or do some combination of the two. you may be surprised at how well your music knows you, and how accurate (or disturbing) some of it’s answers may be. two ground rules: no cheating with the answers (you have to listen to what your ipod tells you, even if it doesn’t make any sense), and you can’t make any important life decisions based on what your ipod tells you. i mean, really... would you trust a cheap piece of electronics to tell you what to do with your life, or an eternally optimistic newspaper horoscope? exactly.

so without further ado, here are all of my life’s questions answered for me...

1. how am i feeling today?
Hope Falls

2. will i get far in life?
Beautiful America

3. how do my friends see me?
Television

4. will i ever get married, and if so to whom?
Mr. Crowley (hands down winner for "most disturbing answer")

5. will I have a meaningful career?
Superstar

6. what is the story of my life?
Keep Movin’

7. if i had to describe my college life in one phrase, what would it be?
The Gladiator Waltz

8. how can i succeed in life?
Twilight and Shadows

9. what is the best thing about me?
In the End

10. how is today going to be?
Stars

11. what is in store for this weekend?
Faking Life

12. what song describes my family?
Learning to Breathe

13. if i had a dish at a restaurant named after me, what would it be?
This Is Your Life

14. how is my life going?
Citylights

15. what will be my last words before i die?
Hate (I Really Don’t Like You)

16. what song will they play at my funeral?
Light at my Feet

17. how does the world see me?
Green and Gray

18. what do my friends really think of me?
Someone to Die For

19. do people secretly lust after me?
Poparazzi

20. how can i make myself happy?
Railway

21. what should i do with my life?
Lie

22. where should i live?
Breakfast at Timpani’s

23. what is some good advice for me?:
Pootermobile

24. what's that smell?
Giant Squid!

25. what should be my signature karate move?
You Take My Heart Away

26. how do i feel after i eat fast food?
Two Hornpipes

27. should i consider a career as a pirate?
Don’t Underestimate

28. if i were to change my name to something exotic, what would it be?
About a Burning Fire

29. what is the meaning of life?
The Meaning of it all

30. should i ever try and juggle live grenades?
God help the outcast

i'm too amazed to respond to most of those answers... i bow before the supreme wisdom of technology

malaprop mom

my mom is an amazing source of wisdom. however, much of her knowledge tends to be imparted in a very nontraditional way. she has perfected the art of the "unintentionally wise mis-quote," wherein she rearranges, mashes, slices and dices well-known sayings into new, unusual, and yet surprisingly insightful quotes. for instance, the following are but a few of her many gems from over the years...

"the kids are eating like weeds these days"
"he's a chip off the old shoulder"
"no skin off my bones"

...and so on. but today, she came up with perhaps her best work yet. on the way home from the beach, the topic of conversation happened to land on a certain individual (anonymous and unimportant), about whom my mother made the following observation:

"he's a swell of a nice guy"


misspoken? perhaps. but nonetheless, it's yet another entry into the"mom-isms" book of lore